As Google prepares to introduce its Nexus One smartphone, user interest in Android-based phones approaches that of Apple’s iPhone, a new consumer survey finds. However, unlike Apple’s monolithic brand identity with the iPhone, Android seems hobbled by its own success.

Although 28 percent of people who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days want an Apple iPhone, 21 percent “prefer to have the Android OS on their new phone,” said the ChangeWave survey conducted in December. In September, Android was picked by just 6 percent of those surveyed.However, the newfound interest in Android is split amongst several phone makers, such as Motorola and HTC, which produce the Android-based Droid and Droid Eris, along with other non-Android handsets. The survey found 13 percent of people who said they will buy an Android device within three months picked a Motorola phone while 9 percent picked one from HTC, evidence of the fractionalized interest.

For Apple, the survey revealed some confusion about the iPhone. While 28 percent of people said they planned to buy an “iPhone OS X” handset, 32 percent of the same group understood iPhone also manufactured the device.

Android-based phones are also nipping at the iPhone’s heals for user satisfaction. ChangeWave found 72 percent of Android users “very satisfied” with their handset, versus 77 percent for the iPhone. Just 41 percent were very satisfied with the Blackberry; 29 percent with PalmOS or Web OS, and 25 percent for Windows Mobile phones.

A comScore survey in December also found increasing interest in Android-based phones. Athough 20 percent of people reported they plan to buy an iPhone in the next three months, 17 percent picked Android. That survey also found Android users and iPhone users are both heavy users of mobile media.

Despite the heavy interest in rumor Apple will introduce a tablet device later in January, Time picked Motorola’s Android-based Droid as the gadget of 2009.

[Via ChangeWave and a href=”http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/04/user_interest_satisfaction_in_android_approaching_the_iphone.html”>AppleInsider]

About the author

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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